This year's Kansas basketball team appears to be as athletic as any head coach Bill Self has put together for a while. With a bevy of talented freshmen like Tyran Stokes, Taylen Kinney, Davion Adkins, and others; several veteran transfer additions; and with Kohl Rosario and Paul Mbiya, the Jayhawks look to be a dangerous team.
KU looks deep in the backcourt and at the power forward position. If Tre White and Melvin Council Jr. win their respective court cases and return to play for KU, then there will be almost an embarrassment of riches at those four spots.
The one area where Kansas has questions is at the five spot. Christian Reeves offers a veteran presence but has been dealing with injuries, and it is unclear how available he will be early in the year. Mybiya has a lot of raw talent but is still in the developmental stage of his early career. Adkins offers depth, but he will float between the four and five spots as he gets stronger and better.
The one Kansas basketball player from the last 10 years that would make this team dominating is Udoka Azubuike
Azubuike was a dominant force for the Jayhawks during his four years with KU. After a developmental freshman season, he averaged 13.0, 13.4, and 13.7 points per game his last three seasons. His senior year, he averaged a double, pulling down an astonishing 10.5 rebounds a game.
While Azubuike didn't have any shooting range at all, he was an absolute beast around the basket. He shot 77.0 percent from the field his sophomore season, the first of two times he led the nation. His career 74.6 percent from the field is an all-time NCAA record.
Defensively, he was an elite rim protector, averaging 2.0 blocks per game for his career and 2.6 blocks during his senior campaign.
If you threw Azubuike into the middle of this team, surrounded by all the talent and athleticism on the perimeter, Kansas would be extremely difficult to stop. Of all the KU players over the last 10 seasons, Azubuike would probably have the biggest impact on this particular roster.
Of course, Azubuike was part of that 2019-20 team that was so good. Going into the postseason, Kansas was ranked number one and was going to be the favorite to win the national championship. Unfortunately for that team, COVID caused the cancelation of March Madness, and the Jayhawks never got their shot at a title.
Azuibuike was drafted in the first round of the 2020 NBA Draft, 27th overall, by Utah. He played sparingly over the next four seasons, playing in 84 total games, averaging 3.0 points per game along with 2.8 rebounds.
The days of a low-post center dominating in the NBA are long past, but those players still have a place in the college game, and the All-American certainly carved out his niche while at Kansas.
Reeves, Mbiya, and Adkins will bring their own flavor to to the Jayhawks this season, and while none of them will be the same dominating force (yet) that Azubuike was, they should still provide plenty of postives to the lineup.
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